Mercenaries and Adventurers

Zhao Ji felt that at least he had to go up and see if the traces of unknown monsters on the tree trunk were the same thing as the thing in the leaf he picked up under the tree.

Do whatever comes to mind.

Zhao Ji climbed to a higher place again, but before crawling, he found a place where the branches and the trunk meet, and took off part of the armor on his body that was more in the way.

He dared to do this now, mainly because his high position seemed relatively safe at the moment.

The surrounding trees were not as tall as this big tree, so he didn't have to worry about being attacked by any monsters or animals in the bushes.

After taking off part of the heavy and obstructive armor, Zhao Ji's crawling speed increased all of a sudden, and it didn't take long to get close to the monster trace on the top of the tree.

After approaching, Zhao Ji poked the translucent substance sticking to the surface of the trunk vigorously with the dagger in his hand.

Sure enough, as he expected, after the dagger stabbed, there was a bang bang bang bang bang sound.

"It looks the same thing." Zhao Ji muttered to himself, and then subconsciously looked towards the road to the south and the forest further south.

He narrowed his eyes, as if he had spotted something.

If it wasn't for this high place with excellent vision, it would be impossible for him to see things that were hard to find from the ground.

In the forest to the south across the road leading to Gloomy Grove Village, he also saw a tall tree that was obviously higher than the other trees. Needless to say, at the top of the big tree, he could barely see a color different from the trunk.

Looking at the translucent substances covering the tree trunks above his head, Zhao Ji could see that the two were the same thing.

Why is there such a strange thing on the top of such a tall tree? If it was made by a monster, what was it used for?

Zhao Ji couldn't understand it.

I had no choice but to climb down slowly, put on my armor, and slide down along the rope left before.

After reaching the ground, I untied the rope that formed a circle, and simply retrieved the rope.

He ran out of the forest quickly, and then came to the forest on the south side of the road. Relying on the promising direction, he quickly found the tall tree in the same dark forest.

Zhao Ji climbed up slowly. Because of his experience, he climbed to a place where he felt safe, then took off the obstructing armor, and sped up to climb to the height of the big tree.

Also on the top of this big tree, he saw the same hard translucent substance as before.

Now he can be sure that this must be left by the monster.

He looked north, and soon found the same tall tree in the forest to the north. He tried to connect the two trees in different forests virtually, as expected.

Not far below the dotted line connecting the two big trees, there is the campfire clearing where the fawn was devoured last night.

Although there is a little deviation, it looks pretty much the same.

So did that monster use these two big trees to create white mist last night, and then sneak up on the prey below from a high altitude?

Regarding this point, Zhao Ji was a little puzzled, not because he didn't believe the definite evidence he found, but because the distance between these two big trees was really too far, right?

Using the width of the road on the ground as a reference, he estimated that the distance between at least two big trees exceeded 200 meters. What kind of monster can be two hundred meters long? If it is really two hundred meters long, is it still necessary to eat business travelers and hunters who come to search for it?

joke.

"If it was me, I would have attacked those bandits in the mountains long ago. Anyway, there are so many of them, and no one will care if they eat them." Zhao Ji said to himself with a smile.

There was nothing else on it, so Zhao Ji got down and returned to the side of the road.

After checking the hard translucent ball in the bag again and finding no change, Zhao Ji packed up the trolley and took it to the road, put all the armor in the box, and walked westward after getting ready .

--

It was getting dark, and Zhao Ji didn't stop. He simply ate some food and water, and then went west with all his might.

He heard people say that although there were unknown and mysterious disappearances on this road, the clever business travelers soon discovered that as long as they didn't stay on the road at night, there would be no danger at all.

Therefore, although many people are afraid of this road and dare not come to do business, there are still some business travelers who are not afraid of death, rushing all the way west from Kendall City to the gloomy forest village.

The road was not completely cut off, which is one reason why Kendall City executives did not respond much.

Therefore, at this time, Zhao Ji followed the method of others and headed for Yinyulin Village at night. If the prediction is not bad, at this speed, he can reach the village in the middle of the night.

Zhao Ji now understands why if he keeps walking, he won't disappear at night. It's entirely because of the terrifying monster at that location, its moving speed is actually not that fast, if the people passing by don't stop, it can't attack people secretly at all.

Laughing to death, such a terrifying monster last night moved so fast, maybe it was chasing after Zhao Ji this time.

But he couldn't keep up with him.

As long as Zhao Ji keeps walking, there is no need to worry.

When the moons in the sky were all hanging high in the middle of the sky, Zhao Ji finally saw the continuous fields and village walls not far ahead through the faint moonlight.

---

The field of Yinyulin Village fits perfectly with the surrounding open space. It is a small space that is long from east to west and short from north to south. Although the place is not big, by the moonlight, Zhao Ji can fully see that the village has expanded itself to the limit as much as possible.

If the forest edges on the north and south sides are not cut down, the area of ​​the village can only be developed to the east and west sides. But the more the east and west sides develop, the more inconvenient the villagers are to cultivate the reclaimed fields.

After all, if my family's land is on the flat land on the west side of the village, but my family is on the east side of the village, then I have to cross a long road every day to cultivate. But if the villager's land and home are on one side, then the villagers will basically not go to the other side of the village at all. Over time, the two sides of the village will completely become two villages.

At that time, for land and water, they will fall into endless conflicts.

In addition, almost every household will definitely have young people who have participated in militia training. At that time, conflicts will accumulate, and **** battles will definitely break out.

It would be fine if the lord of the village mediates locally, but as far as Zhao Ji knows, the lord of Gloomy Forest Village is the Knight Fickner who is nicknamed the 'pig' by the Kendals.

According to the news, the so-called 'knight' who has never left the city will definitely not be able to solve the future troubles of Yin Yulin Village.

Having said so much, these are actually things that Zhao Ji analyzed and judged when he approached the village. Although it was all just his own imagination, based on the experience of his previous life, he can be sure that if nothing happens in the gloomy forest village in the future, the situation he guessed will definitely break out.

Just sooner or later.

"Is there anyone? Come, someone, open the door for me!" Keel came to the big wooden door of the village, banged it with his fist, and then shouted into the wooden door.

Sure enough, as he expected, there were people guarding the gate at night. After all, there was a mysterious 'disappearance' incident nearby recently. It is impossible not to arrange someone to guard the gate of the village.

"Who is it? No matter who it is, Irupaki said that the gate of the village will not be opened at night for safety. Please spend the night outside the gate. Don't worry, the previous merchants are like that, and nothing has been lost outside the gate." Please rest assured and wait until daytime.” The watchman inside was a middle-aged man, he climbed up the platform next to the wooden door, lit a torch and looked out the door, and said after seeing Kiel alone.

Keel rolled his eyes, he thought the janitor was making things difficult for him, but he had no proof.

Not wanting to cause a conflict, and he didn't have enough power to protect anything, Keel had to park the cart against the wooden wall outside the village gate, took out his camping equipment, tinkered with it, and went to sleep.

Seeing that Keir didn't yell any more, the janitor on the top put away the torch, turned around and went back to the hut behind the door to keep warm.

It is impossible to open the door, and it is not an important caravan coming to the village. If it is just a person, it is impossible for him to open the door.

---

The next morning, Keir woke up early. He got out of a low windproof and heat-resistant tent that he built last night. Beat up.

"Here, here. Is that the person from last night? That's the village's regulations. Please don't be angry. I'm just a gatekeeper." The large wooden pin inside the wooden door was moved away, and the wooden door on one side opened Come on, the middle-aged man who met inside last night was talking to Kiel with a flattering smile, and his eyes looked at the long sword on Kiel's waist and the spear tied to the cart from time to time.

Keir didn't say anything about what happened last night, and asked him where the real and useful village steward of their village lived.

"You ask Irupaki to be in charge. His family is in the tallest house in the middle of the village. You can find it as you keep walking." The janitor saw a blue ax tied to Kiel's cart , Guess what Keir is here for: "Are you the warrior that the steward hired? It's really great. After the three hunters were rumored to be dead, everyone was afraid that no one would come to solve the problem in our village." It’s troublesome to arrive. It’s all my fault that I couldn’t welcome you in immediately last night, please help our village.”

Nodding perfunctorily, Keir pushed the cart and walked towards the center of the village.

The village is just an ordinary village, probably because there is not enough land and no one dares to go deep into the forest, so the village is really incomparable to the Doral Forest Village he has seen.

Because of the cold weather, Keir didn't see many villagers on the way to the center of the village. They all huddled in their homes to keep warm.

Because it is close to the forest, firewood is indispensable in the village. The stone chimneys of every household emit faint black smoke. Since there is no wind here, the air in the village does not smell very good.

Of course, this smoke is nothing, compared to the exhaust fumes emitted by millions of cars in a big city every day in his previous life, it is still far behind.

Trivial, nothing.

Kiel didn't see any rivers or ponds in the village, but only saw wells on the road between several houses, which shows that it is difficult to get water and farming here.

After all, if there is no natural river, if you want to water the fields, you have to rely entirely on manpower to fetch water and water it.

Nothing compared to the convenience of farming the fields and farms near Kendall City. Therefore, the field output here is naturally incomparable with that around Kendall City.

No wonder there is an immigrant land cultivation law in Kendall County. Those hard-working farmers would rather be tenants in the farm and pay an extra tax to the farm owner than come to remote villages in these counties to cultivate new land. land.

Only the village of Doral Forest is well developed, and the rest of the population is concentrated on the impact plain near Kendall City.

Thinking, soon came to the center of the village.

This place is obviously not as good as Dorallin Village. Except for a few big families in the village, there is only one small hotel dedicated to entertaining businessmen.

After thinking about it, Keir decided to find the village steward first.

The tallest house in the center of the village is very easy to find. It is a three-story pointed wooden house built of thick wood. To be honest, if he didn’t know that it was the house of the village steward’s family, he would even think it belonged to some church. Village chapel.

The center of the village is still a bit popular. If you want to go to the other side of the village for something, you will definitely pass through the middle of the village.

The villagers who came and went looked at Kiel, a strange stranger, but because of the sword on Kiel's waist, no one came up to talk to him.

Knocking on the door of the steward's family, there was an immediate response from inside. Soon, the gate of the courtyard opened, and a young man slightly younger than Keir opened the gate with a dagger hanging from his waist.

"I haven't seen you before, what's the matter?" While asking, the young man saw the long sword on Kiel's waist, and was quite envious.

Kiel puffed up his chest: "I'm Joe Kiel, a warrior from Kendall City. I'm entrusted by the manager of Gloomy Forest Village. Please inform your lord."

"Are you here to solve the disappearance? I thought that after the three daring hunters disappeared in the front end, no one would come here again. Come in, and I'll call my father." The young man heard Keel's voice The intention of coming here was quite exciting, and he slapped around the main body of the house and ran to the yard behind the house.

Keel didn't wait. He pushed the cart into someone's yard, took out his armor box, and began to put on the armor.

The first impression is very important, he didn't want the steward to see him as tender-faced, not much older than other people's children, which created a factor of contempt. Therefore, he directly put on the armor, letting everyone who saw him know that he is a capable person.

So, the asking price can be a bit more after that?

I don't know if this is possible, but Keel plans to try it. If it works, he can study the experience and technical methods of how to make the client pay more.

Soon, when Kiel was only wearing the upper body of the armor, the young man led his father, who was the steward of the village, over.

"This is?" The manager is a middle-aged man, looking a little thin, with two well-maintained beards on his face, and his living conditions seem to be good.

This is something Keel has only recently learned. Men basically wear beards to a greater or lesser extent. Just by looking at the degree of maintenance of their beards, you can see how their financial situation and recent living conditions are. .

Even to a certain extent, a person's character can be seen from the beard.

Of course, men don't grow beards because everyone likes beards. Some people may like beards, but more people grow beards because they don't have a convenient and effective regular shave.

Therefore, aristocratic families with very good living conditions have a greater chance of not growing beards. Unless they need beards to show their majesty and power.

"Ah, I'm Joe Keel, I'm from Kendall City, and I'm partnered with Todd from the Table Corner Tavern. I've accepted your commission to deal with the recent road disappearance in Gloomy Forest Village." Keel was half-dressed awkwardly. He had no choice but to put on the rest of the armor while talking.

"I'm Raul Irupaki, the steward of Gloomy Forest Village~www.readwn.com~ This is my son, Kos. I remembered it as soon as you said it. Indeed, I heard someone talking about it in Kendall City before. The Kiel warrior at the Corner Tavern is very capable and has solved a lot of troubles in the city. I didn't expect you to be so young." The steward Irupaki nodded and introduced him and his son.

Seeing that Kiel had put on all his armor, Irupaki walked around Kiel a few times, nodding his head constantly: "You really look like a warrior with such mighty armor. Although you are young, you must You're no stranger to dealing with weird things that happen in the countryside, are you?"

Keir showed a confident smile: "Yes, there was a strange and **** incident in the farm outside Kendall before, and I showed my skills in it. I actually already have clues about what happened in your village."

Hearing that Keir had a clue, both father and son's eyes lit up: "Really? I thought that after the inexplicable death of the three brave hunters, no one would dare to come over to help our village solve this matter. Originally planned Delay until next year, ask the baron to know about this matter, I didn't expect you to have a clue. This is not a place to talk, please come into the room, there is a fireplace in it, very warm. Kos, go and ask your sister to burn it Get hot water, take out the dried flowers and soak in water to drink."

"Okay." The young man named Kos jumped up the stone steps of the main entrance of the house, opened the door and ran in.

Then came the shouts of a young man from inside.

"Sorry, my son is a bit reckless. Just put your cart in the backyard of the house. Let's go drink some hot water first, then warm up and talk about your discoveries. We don't have much in Gloomy Forest Village, but firewood for fire. a lot of."

Following the steward's guidance, Keel pushed the trolley into the backyard, and then came to the living room of their house through the back door of the backyard.